Netflix shares dropped 5.4 per cent in New York trading yesterday after the movie rental firm announced it had raised $400m from existing investors, but warned that it might not do too well next year.
"If we do not reverse the negative consumer sentiment toward our brand, and if we continue to experience significant customer …

Here's a clue

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Netflix fucked themselves and have no one to blame but themselves for their stupidity. They had a great service, even before they rolled out the online viewing. But greed and arrogance got the better of them and they screwed up. Sure, they fixed their screwup, but too late, they'd already shown they are more worried about the stockholders than their customers. So fuck 'em.

I was angry at netflix

But, to be honest, I don't want Netflix to fail. Its still the best online streaming deal on the web in terms of platform and content.

Other options (many US-only):

- Hulu: 2nd best but even after taking my money, it shows a lot of ads. Hangs when streaming via my blue ray player and I can't seek to the money shot without honoring all the ad stops. :-(

- Crackle: Better than hulu in terms of skipping ad-stops but the content selection or video quality ain't as good. But they don't charge like hulu for non-PC devices.

- imdb: (yes they have free movies @ imdb, paid ones at amazon. One way to get to the link to all free movies is: search for "intimacy" at imdb and then you'll figure out the rest) - But anything decent is on amazon obviously. Maybe imdb app v2 will allow streaming in future.

- youtube/vimeo/amazon(paid)/etc: payper view movie selection. It works out only if you are an infrequent TV watcher. Free movies on youtube are truly pathetic, AFAICT.

- cbs.com: PC only. Only recent episodes. low quality video. ads. But you can see some popular TV shows for free here.

- Xfinity/HBO/etc: you need a regular cable subscription for these. Worth the money only if your fav show are here.

Paris, coz her tape demonstrated that people do have patience for huge media files over sluggish connections if they want the content

Netflix in "customers leave when price is rapidly increased" shocker.

Only thing to do now...

...is fire the CEO.

Customers need to see an actual admission of how badly Netflix screwed up, and a blood sacrifice like sacking the CEO (the chief cheerleader for Qwikster and the price increases) is about the only thing to do.

I've heard from a Netflix employee that the CEO was warned repeatedly about what bad ideas both the price increase and Qwikster were, but that he's so convinced of his infallibility that both went ahead anyway.

It was broken!

Does anyone seriously think that shipping physical DVDs to people is the future of watching content at home? If they do then my new, "web page delivered on a floppy" service is for you!

The same people who said this was crazy are the ones saying that Blockbuster should have got out of physical stores and gone online 10years ago.

They definitely botched the launch - they could have done it better. Or kept the DVD business in house but wound it down - separate prices for new customers, make it an extra charge option for existing renewals. Although supposedly one of the reasons for spinning it off was that Hollywood were charging twice as much for DVD+online rights as online - irrespective of how many DVDs actually shipped.

The bad thing about netflix here is that the choice is terrible., Except for a few old BBC programmes and some art movies you have never heard of - you had better like "straight to service station bargain bin" sequels. But until Hollywood realise this is the future nobody else is any better

Horses for Courses

You voice a popular opinion from people who have fast, cheap broadband connections. Let me just say that not everyone has the same circumstances as you. Many people are unable to get decent broadband and most people are unable to get decent broadband at a reasonable price. I don't consider $100 to $130 for combined cable/internet/phone to be at all reasonable. In many suburban to semi-rural areas of the US that's the best you can do - and I'm not talking about the truly rural areas - there your choice is dial-up or satellite.

Tell us how many 9GB DVDs or 20GB Blurays you are allowed to download a month through your internet connection. For me about 1.5 DVDs. Even if I could download a whole Bluray in one go, it would probably take longer than it arriving by post.

The other problem is that I've seen some of the view over the internet films, and to be honest I don't want to see a Roman mosaic or lego impression of an action film every time there is movement on the screen. I also find it very distracting when what should be a graduated background turns into a rainbow effect using only 5-6 colours with horrible steps between them.

I'm not saying it is the future, but for now, DVDs / Blurays for me please

@Eddie Johnson

Re: "It was broken!"

Shipping physical DVDs to people is the *present* of watching content at home. It's also the only way to get all content which has ever been comitted to DVD.

Whatever the future is is still in the future. Even with my super-fast broadband connection, there are a huge number of movies I can't simply watch on any streaming service. The Netflix DVD service was what I used when I wanted to watch something old and not available via streaming.

Until all content every digitized is available via streams, there is a need to ship physical media.

As for DVD "rights" being charged by Hollywood, you only pay extra if you're renting the DVDs out before they are available for sale. By simply not doing that, Netflix can just buy the physical media as needed and rent it out however they please.

Anyway, Netflix has lost my DVD business and is on the cusp of losing my streaming business because the lack of DVD availability to add value... it was my "Every Movie Ever" library before, now it's just my casual junk library - something which I can provide myself with via better PVR management.

RedBox is supplying me with recentish movies, television wil older popular ones as well as television shows. The value of Netflix is now just a teensy bit more content at a low price. If they lose content or raise the price at all, I'll be gone... because I no longer have a reason to keep them.

Can I just clarify something there. In the US, you can just buy a retail DVD and then rent it out to people, charging them to watch it?

In the UK that is ultra illegal; you have to buy special rental versions, that include an extra license cost to be allowed to do that. Just becasue you bought the disk, doesn't mean you can do what you want with it. I thought that this extra bit was forced on the UK by all the copyright laws that leak out of the US and get imposed on other countries?

@ BristolBatchelor

IANAL, but I understand that is permitted in the US. I think its all covered in what they call the "First Sale Doctrine". Wikipedia says the Movie industry recognised their inability to prevent this legally in NEBG v Weinstein

No you can't buy DVDs to rent

You need to buy an expensive license to rent out the DVD.

There was a company (can't remember the name) who were doing a Netflix type service where you rented the physical DVD, but instead of shipping it to you they physically put it in a drive at their site and streamed the content to you. Their claim was that since they weren't copying the disk and only the single viewer was watching it a time it was exactly the same as a rental.

DVD vs Streaming

Yes, downloading the entire DVD or Blu-ray isn't going to work at the moment for most internet connections.

But people that want the Blu-ray version, or want to watch every extra on a DVD aren't Netlfix's market. Those people buy the disk, and the directors cut, and the collectors edition, and the special metal tin. Netlfix's competition is renting from blockbusters or buying a Fox movie package.